The management of inventory in retail facilities is a critical business function, the execution and efficiency of which often has substantial impact on a retailer's financial performance. In a broad sense, inventory management involves the monitoring, control, and review of the handling, identifying, cataloguing, and counting of items of retail merchandise. Executed by a team of retail workers and their managers, common inventory management tasks include, for example, unloading merchandise delivered to a retail facility, inspecting and recording deliveries, stocking and restocking shelves, retrieving merchandise from storage to fill a customer order, pricing and labeling merchandise placed out on shelves, performing price and inventory checks, and generating and reviewing inventory reports, assignments, and staffing.
Inventory in large retail facilities—such as those operated by the well known national and international retail chains—can be copious, diverse, and fluid. Handling and attending to inventories at such scale and complexity can be daunting, requiring a large well-trained staff equipped with tools that provide them with access to the inventory-related information needed to perform their duties. It would not be uncommon in large retail organization for inventory-assigned workers (such as, “pickers”, “stockers”, “porters”, “clerks”, and their managers) to constitute a majority among total retail facility employees.
It is a current practice within retail facilities to provide each worker that requires access to inventory-related data with a handheld optical bar code scanner specifically developed and sold for commercial retail use. As essentially “niche” devices, these scanners tend to be sold at a comparatively high price, which is borne by the retailer together with the associated and necessary training costs. Multiplied by each worker in need of such scanner, across each facility operated by the retailer, the overall total cost of implementation can be substantial. There is thus considerable interest in finding a lower cost alternative capable of providing the same, if not better, functionality.